Although I didn’t find the prior model, the Z10, to be a sluggish phone, this new handset should be much quicker: It has a 1.7 GHz quad-core Snapdragon chip inside and 2 GB of internal memory. The phone also has stereo speakers for what BlackBerry calls Natural Sound that makes “conversations sound like you’re in the same room.”

Carriers will announce availability and pricing starting next week in the U.K. and Middle East, with all other regions to follow. The phone will launch with BlackBerry 10 OS v 10.2, which will also be made for the Z10, Q10 and Q5 smartphones starting in October.

Given BlackBerry’s struggles to compete — and because the company is looking at options to sell itself — I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the last major BlackBerry handset to launch — pending a miraculous positive turn of events, that is. Sadly, the story has been one of timing. If BlackBerry 10 and the supporting handsets had arrived at least 12 to 18 months sooner, things might have gone differently.